July 13th, 2012

HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!!!

Welcome then, gentle listen-folk, to the Twilight Zone….where anything can happen. Such as Gary Lactus NOT appearing on this week’s edition of the internet’s favourite aural-comics affairs-cast SILENCE! Fear not though, stepping into his large cosmic brogues comes sprightly upstart BOBSY! He and tired old deck-hand The Beast Must Die just couldn’t bare to think of a week without pointless comics frippery, so they’ve teamed up to bring you SILENCE no.21!!

And what a fist they make of it. In a whopping two and a quarter hours they cause merry havoc discussing 2000AD, Judge Dredd, middle-class Quantam Leap, Rocketeer Adventures,Superman 3 (ie the best one), Fury MAX, Earth 2, Robert Downey Jr’s gradual transformation into David Gest, Ron Perlman (aka the Monster Don), Thief of Thieves, The Reckoning, Marvel NOW!, Ozymandias (aka Between Watchmen), AVX, Haunt, Dial H, Action Comics, Castle Waiting…plus a typically rambling digression into Steve Gerber’s wonderful Infernal Man-Thing. Oh god but that’s just the tip of the iceberg…well, actually it’s more like the main part of the iceberg, but the real cream of the iceberg (what?) is the sparkling interraction between two broken mammals who can’t think of anything better to do than talk about comics (while Rome burns)!

Yeah, good points about “company men” writers having to say certain things to support the Big Two properties.

I really think Morrison’s gone far out of his way to talk-up the importance of DC characters, though. I mean, he did it all throughout Supergods, and it wasn’t like that book came out through DC. I think he really does believe his own hype about how important these characters are and how real human beings should basically literally worship Superman and look at him as our successor. Frankly I found most of his contentions in Supergods to be ridiculous, childish, and embarrassing.

But as long as he turns out work like Batman Inc #2, I can’t really complain. I mean, fucking hell, that’s such masterful work.

I stopped reading Action a while ago and refused to pay $4 an issue for it. It was very choppy and “bumbly”. Still, the next time I trade in some comics for store credit I probably will pick up a few recent issues. Even bad Morrison is more interesting than most other stuff out there.

Interesting to hear some He-Man talk. I’m very much looking forward to the Frazer Irving one-shot in October.

Uh, I’ve just read the last action and Grant Morrison’s been reading my mind again. I wrote a script featuring the Metaleks and Knight and Squire ages ago and it came complete with some construction workers packing digger antennae and headlight eyes.

Wein went off the charts on a recent Nerdist writers podcast (fun listen, Brubaker on as well as Jackson Publick of Venture Brothers fame).

I found myself almost feeling bad for Wein because he was just dropping bomb after bomb (Alan Moore is a one note writer, I hired Jim Shooter as an assistant, Stan Lee story #7,632, *I* was the reason people bought Swamp Thing!) and monopolizing the podcast.

As to the contents of the podcast proper that was a good job, fellows!

The multiple James Robinson issue was really on display with E2 #3. Lately he’s put me in mind of a dodgy high wire act. When he lands the stunts (Shade) it’s ooh’s and ahh’s. E2′s latest issue was a stumble right off the platform. I wanted more of Alan’s journey to accept the power of the Green Lantern. Green energy flashbacks and constructs of his dead love moving him to accept the responsibility. It would have achieved a great deal, I think, without sacrificing much at all. It might have legitimized the depth of the ballyhooed gay relationship while providing a small hero’s journey. All the while the power of the ring would have been on display.

As it was, it was exactly as Beast said, “Oh well, he’s dead. For you, my love, I hop into bed with the green miasma!”

Team House Vs The draGen sounds quite appealling. Might have to have a ganDer at that.
I didn’t listen to the second hour (just yet), soz, do youse guys talk about any less action hero-ey sort of stuff at all?
Actually, maybe you could make a special series of podcasts just for me? About 40 mins long, no TV talk, just readings of comics by people whose entire oeuvre consists of about 12 pages of black and white formal experimentation with subjects ranging from the homeless to people with Alzheimers, via BEMs who kill nameless space-workers for no reason.

RE: JD; the introduction of Dredd as property, rather than character, happened at the end of The Dead Man and continued apace when he was introduced into the DC universe in that Batman crossover. How many times do I have to point this out — before you completely submit the entirety of your bio-energy to me?!?!?!?!?

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